To the Ones Without Drastic 'Before and After' Eating Disorder Photos

Your struggle still matters, and you were sick enough to recover. I promise that you are still valid. You were not wasting time, resources, finances or energy. You are just as deserving of recovery as the owners of those #edrecovery accounts on Instagram.

Weight is simply a side effect of an eating disorder, but so is comparison. Maybe you were never tubed or forced into treatment or underweight. Maybe you didn’t spend X months in treatment, or maybe you never went into treatment. Maybe it was your choice and no one else knew.

I promise that you still struggled, and I promise that you are worthy of healing.

I can say this until I’m blue in the face, but I struggle to believe it too. It’s hard to accept that I’m allowed to recover when I was never on death’s doorstep. It wasn’t “recover or die.” For me, it was “survive or thrive,” and I chose the latter. I don’t regret my decision, but I do feel guilty on occasion. I struggle to believe that I was sick enough, too. Let me tell you a secret, friend. No one ever feels sick enough. No one ever actually feels deserving of recovery. You could have been the “sickest” of them all, and I doubt that you would be saying, “Wow. I can recover now! I finally deserve it.” You don’t have to have gained X pounds or practice intuitive eating or love your body or run a popular blog to call yourself recovered. You may be following a meal plan for a long time, and you may still hate your body, and you may have never had to undergo weight restoration. That’s OK.